The Wildly Eclectic Me

But look! I do have a husband! And isn't he handsome?! He's very picky about pictures though. That's why he's been absent from my blog until now. ;) There is the whole brood. That's my Mommy and Daddy. Aren't they adorable? I love this picture! I can't believe he caught me running! I thought he was taking Nicky's picture, and I looked up and he snapped both of us. I had to chase that child all the way up and down the beach like four times, because he took the command "run down there and run back" VERY seriously. LOL Oh well, running is how I lost the 40 pounds that made me willing to get photos taken, so it seems appropriate. ;) My sweet boys! The picture were done by Rusty Amos of SGI Photos . He and his wife are really nice people, and he's a great photographer. Check him out if you're ever down on St. George Island. I highly recommend him.

Finn discovered the joy of chasing sea gulls. Very slowly chasing sea gulls. So in the interest of entertaining the boys, we fed them to lure them down for chasing. ;) There were a few times he got SO angry because he couldn't catch them. hehe I don't care what anyone says. I think sea gulls are adorable! While we had to stay inside because it was raining Nicky played a lot of Gameboy. Finn took to sitting next to him and watching him play. He even likes to play with his hair while he does it, much to Nicky's irritation. I think Finn's going to grow up to be a world famous hair dresser! He's obsessed with hair! His own and other peoples! We bought a skim board and tried to use it... The operative word being tried. It's much harder than it looks! But doesn't my little surfer dude look ADORABLE! Silly little guy! Finn took a big time liking to his net and wouldn't even let go of it long enough to sleep! The last morning that we were there th...

When I said calm...I mean Caaaaalllllllllm. :-D Since the seas were so calm we could see lots of little animals under the surface. I found quite a few of these Lettered Olive Snails. Nicky thought they were pretty cool since they're like Sponge Bob's pet snail Gary. Well....they're like Gary in that they live in the sea and they're snails. There the similarities end. LOL Around Wednesday...or Thursday? The days run together. The water started getting choppy and a storm started rolling in. It sure made for some nice picture backgrounds. That top one is Nicky with my beautiful Mommy. Since it was too choppy to really swim anywhere but the pool, we went to check out the bay. Apalachicola Bay is FULL of oysters, and let me tell you, I decreased the population a bit with all of the raw oysters I ate when we were there. ;) Mmm they were so good! It's also full of Florida Fighting Conchs . (At least, I think that's what those are...) And the shells t...

We drove down to St. George Island, Florida to spend a week. On the way down we stopped in at my brother, Brett's, house for the night. It was great to see him. I haven't actually been down since he moved into his house. It took us about 12 hours to get there. We left at 8:30 the night before and arrived around 9 after we stopped for breakfast and stuff. The boys did OK. They were very uncomfortable in their car seats, but we were able to keep them mostly asleep most of the night. And when they weren't asleep they were either playing gameboy (Nicky) or watching Yo Gabba Gabba (Finn). We got to Mobile, Alabama just as the sun was coming up and let me tell you that town is gorgeous in the morning light. We were on a street lined with big old mansions and GIANT Live Oaks just dripping with Spanish moss. I wish I'd taken a picture. It was absolutely enchanting! My brother has a family of the CUTEST tinnnnnnnnny baby lizards living in the lava rock next to his fro...

I'm not standing here outside your door though...cause that would be creepy. Like stalker creepy... :-D Well ladies and gents, I'm off! I'll be thinking of all of you while I'm lounging on the beach sipping pina coladas. (Shhhhhhhhhhhhh Lishy...I know the reality is more like while I'm chasing down my three year old while wrestling the live crab out of my one year old's mouth, but I choose to live in the illusion at least until I get through the 16 hours of driving. ;-D Wish me luck!!! I'm probably going to need it!!!

Okay, I'm kinda an obsessive planner in all situations, but when it comes to trips I'm even more so! We're going on our first family road trip this summer to St. George Island in Florida. It is so beautiful there. I can't wait! But I have to wait because it's not until August, bah! Oh well I have lots of other exciting things between now and then, like Finn's 1st Birthday in July! :-D So on with my obsessive planning. My parents are going too, and they picked out an awesome beach house . So that part is all taken care of. We're planning on taking the Memphis route, seen here: View Larger Map I'm thinking we'll have to fill up around twice on the way there. I found this totally awesome website where you enter the type of car you drive and where your going and it checks local prices on gas and your cars estimated millage to give you an approximate price. Now this won't help me a lot because it can't see the future and tell me what prices ...

Remember I said we went to see the guards at the queen's castle? I had this picture in my mind of Nicky standing up next to the guard all cute while I took a lovely snap shot. His daddy was one of the Queen's Guard, and yes, he did wear the nutcracker outfit. No, unfortunately, I don't have pictures. :-( His Mom said she did though. We shall see if I can procure one. Well the adorable picture in my mind wasn't quite the way it went down. We parked and walked to Amalienborg. Nicky seemed happy enough until his Daddy took him over to stand near the guard. Note the look of pure terror and the clinging to his father's hand. He did NOT want to be put down near the strange man with the grumpy look on his face and the giant furry head. After three attempts to make him sit down on the ground (I dunno why hubby thought that was a good idea), this is what took place. You might notice that Nicky seems blurry... That would be because he was sprinting away from the guard a...

It wasn't bad at all! *looks to the heavens* Thanks for that!!! First we went to check in and the guy at the check-in desk told us that "someone" (I'm guessing the woman in Atlanta) made Bryon's a paper ticket and attached an infant in lap to him, but didn't give us a paper ticket... I was like ohhhhh great this is gonna SUCK again! But Alan, who is absolutely wonderful and deserves a raise, fixed it all for us and got us our paper tickets for Bryon and walked them to the gate so we didn't have to stand in line at the information desk. Nicky slept the first five hours of the nine hour flight. Then was pretty good after that. He did get darn antsy in the last two hours or so, but ,jeez, who wouldn't! Then we got close to Atlanta and, ye gods, they said there was bad weather in the area. I saw a replay of last time running through my mind, but the pilot landed wonderfully despite some ridiculous turbulence. I have to say there is something BEAUTIFU...

We are heading back to the great state of Arkansas tommorrow. I'm too tried now to write much, but I must remember to tell the story of what happened when we went to Amalienborg today! It was terribly amusing! Well I'm off to bed! Wish me luck!

Today we went into the city. Bryon's parents had to go to Fyn to a funeral so we took Nicky on the Metro. He of course thought it was terribly amusing. We'd already been on it with him once, but this time was just as fun. We got off at one station and walked through Kongens Have (the King's Gardens) and took pictures in front of Rosenborg Slot . It's the castle where Bryon lived when he was in the Queen's Guard. Well he didn't actually live in it, but in another castle right beside it. If you've ever seen the Prince and I, that's the castle that the royal family supposedly lives in. In truth it's not, Amalienborg is where the family lives, but this castle is much more fairytale-princess-like. The royal jewels are housed there, but we didn't go inside. I've already seen them, Bryon has guarded them, and really I just don't think Nicky would care. :-) He was terribly impressed by the ducks outside in the moat though. After that...

There are several involved here so let me start with the most recent. We were just up having tea and rum balls. Nicky was sleeping downstairs, and I was listening carefully for him to start crying. Well I heard something, but it wasn't crying. It was a tiny munchkin talking, and I thought, hmm that's odd. So I ran to the stairs, and I see my little boy half asleep crawling up the last step. Now these aren't your usual steps. They are evil, scary steps. I'll have to take a picture and add it later. These steps scare me and I'm 28 years old! Apparently they don't phase my two year old, however. At least he didn't fall, and he went right back to sleep. That brings me to my next story of toddler angst. We went to Tivoli Gardens today. It's an amusement park in the middle of Copenhagen. He had a blast riding in the miniature cars and miniature planes with his grandmother. Well, we decided to eat at Valhal which is a viking restaurant. Hmm .....

Wow, that's a self-absorbed title. hehe But it is my birthday so :p I got a great present from my best friend! Today we're going to eat lasagna and friends are coming over for dinner, and I'm having an ice cream cake. Other than that, I dunno what we're up to. Yesterday we went to the zoo and to an adorable little town not far away called Dragoer. All the buildings were OLD and had thatched roofs, and the roads were barely wide enough for one carriage. It was adorable. Nicky's favorite part of the zoo was the petting zoo where he got to cuddle a goat. That just made his day. Well, I'm off!

We went to a place called Fjord og Baelte yesterday on the island of Fyn. It was a lovely drive. The old farms on Fyn with their adorable thatched roofs were lots of fun to see. The weather was great. It did rain just a bit on the way home, but if it had to rain that was a good time for it. The temparture has been hoovering around 60 degrees most days and getting colder at night. It was fun. They had porpoises and seals there, and apparently they have the first porpoise of that kind ever born in captivity. It was an itty bitty guy. Pretty darn cute. Today we had to go to the bank, because apparently the Danes don't want Americans money. No, I don't mean I tried to pay with dollars. I tried to buy things with my visa card, and unless you have a chip and a pin code then they want nothing to do with you. Such a pain! I hadn't brought much cash because I was afraid of losing it. So I was kinda worried, but I just wrote my mother-in-law a check, and she got the cash out for me ...

Our last flight from Dublin to Copenhagen was with SAS. Apparently the day we took the flights from hell a SAS plane (not the first one this has happened to) crash landed. There is something about the landing gear that is made wrong, and they collapse on landing... So now all SAS planes are grounded. Yeahh... I could have been stuck. Which might not have been that bad except that given the previous trip circumstances probably would have meant I was trapped in the airport staring out the windows like a puppy with its nose to the glass at Ireland for like a day or something and never actually getting to go out into Dublin. Anyway it's been lovely since we got here. We got our bags the day I wrote my last blog. So despite the fact that they all had to be washed because some dog peed on mine and Bryon's was soaking wet, we do now have clean clothes. I don't know how the heck a dog peed on my bag! I am SURE it didnt happen before we left the house, but knowing my connivi...

A. The plane trip could have been much better than I thought it would be, and I would have been ecstatic and relieved. B. It could have been just the same I thought it would be, and I wouldn't have been surprised. C. It could have been worse than anything I imagined... The answer, my friends, to how our trip went was a big whooping C!!!!!!!!!!!!! I thought I wouldn't survive! Honestly! First we got on the plane in Fayetteville on the way to Atlanta. The take off was somewhat difficult, because you can't have electronic devices turned on, and the only thing that really distracted him was the iPod! Thanks, Mommy! It was a HUGE help at all other times. Once we got in the air it wasn't so bad. We played games had snacks, and he was relatively happy. Then right before we were supposed to land, the captain came on and said that there was a bad storm over Atlanta, and we were in a holding pattern until it blew over. Okay not so bad. We should still have had time to make...

What better way to start your Tuesday than with a little bit of alliteration, eh? If you read my blog with any regularity, you probably know that I have a little boy just shy of two, and we're going to be visiting my in-laws next month. I'm so excited about going to visit. We haven't been back in like 5 years and haven't seen them in a year. I'm just worried about how well my little guy is going to travel. The plane ride to get there? Two hours to Atlanta and then eight to Copenhagen. I can't tell you how much fear this evokes in me. Especially after I read these stories... Exhibit A Exhibit B We're going to get thrown off the plane! I just know it! Nicky isn't the quietest child in the world. He occasionally screeches loudly and happily. We're working on that with him, but he's not quite old enough to reason with yet. It is getting better though. So I'm trying to think of ways to keep the child happy. 1. 80 GB iPod Video complete ...